Farm-City Tour

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Farm-City Tour101205 oconee12Athens Banner-HeraldAt the 15th annual Oconee County Farm-City Tour, a substantial rain seemed to be one of the features of the event, but since many of those taking part in the tour have farming interests, the downpour was a happy respite from a rather arid September.--> Farm-City Tour Story Photos Cultural Enrichment Director William Riley and Research and Development Director Stephanie Struble show guests at the Zaxby's headquarter's in Oconee County the Zax sign. Every year the Chamber of Commerce sponsors a farm-city tour to take people to visit city businesses or farming operations. Elissa Eubanks/Staff

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By Chris J. Starrs | Correspondent | Story updated at 8:52 AM on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 At the 15th annual Oconee County Farm-City Tour, a substantial rain seemed to be one of the features of the event, but since many of those taking part in the tour have farming interests, the downpour was a happy respite from a rather arid September.

At this year's excursion, which was held Oct. 6 and included close to 60 participants on two Oconee County School System buses, special emphasis was placed on learning about utilizing animals for research, but there was also plenty of discussion about how farming and big-city business team up to put food on tables throughout the country.

While last year's tour - which is annually sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce's Agribusiness Committee - left the Oconee County limits for a visit to the Bear Creek Reservoir (which is located in parts of Barrow and Jackson counties), this year's event made its first-ever foray into Clarke County with stops at the University of Georgia's Edgar H. Rhodes Center for Animal & Dairy Science and the UGA Swine Center.

"From an educational standpoint, this is a great opportunity," said Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton, who has made the Farm-City sojourn many times in his capacity as a county commissioner and school board member. "For some of our community's youth to be able to go to the University of Georgia and visit places they might not ordinarily ever get to go to - well, you just can't put a price on that."

"This was our first time in Clarke County, and we've been waiting to do that for a long time," added Thomas Verner of the USDA Farm Service Agency and tour chairman. "And what better place to go than UGA? Our community continues to be concerned and interested in agriculture; there's a genuine appreciation for it by everybody, and this tour is another way to help educate the public."

The Farm-City Tour also featured a stop at the corporate and franchise offices of Oconee County-based Zaxby's restaurants, and the outing concluded at the Watkinsville Community Center with a barbecue lunch and presentations by area middle school students.

Perhaps the highlight of the 2005 tour was the visit to UGA's Large Animal Research Unit, where participants were able to reach into the rumen of a fistulated steer to better understand a bovine's digestive system and were also able to meet "KC," who became the first cloned calf in 2001, and her offspring "Sunshine," who KC gave birth to last December.

Mark Froetschel, a professor in Animal & Dairy Science, explained how cows have a "symbiotic relationship" with the bacteria in their stomachs and through a high-powered microscope displayed the kinetic activity occurring during the cow's digestive process. Several tour participants - including 12-year-old Zach Hamlin, a seventh-grader at Oconee Middle School - placed their hand in the fistulated cow (which has been called "a cow with a window") to experience that digestive activity.

"It was fun sticking my hand into the rumen of a cow," said Hamlin, who added he hoped to be a biochemist or geneticist some day. "It felt kind of weird - it was warm and really mushy. I could feel the rumen moving as the cow was digesting its food. And when the food came into the rumen, there was this big blast of air in your face. It was definitely neat seeing the inside of a steer."

Steve Stice, who has close to two decades of experience in animal cloning research, met with tour members to briefly discuss cloning, pointing out that despite its unusual heritage (she was cloned from the cells of dead animals) KC is "normal in every way." He discussed the importance of studying cloning and shared his opinion on the prospect of cloning human beings.

"Hopefully it will never happen," said Stice, who added that 50 cows and 100 pigs had been cloned at UGA. "People who want to clone humans aren't really scientists. Is it possible? Certainly. But there's no real good reason to do it."

The tour stop at Zaxby's revealed not only the business practices of a growing fast-food franchise but also amply illustrated the company's reliance on its agricultural partners.

David Moon, a senior consultant for Zaxby's and one of the company representatives speaking to a Farm-City group, said Zaxby's uses 17.6 million chicken tenders (which represents just 5 percent of the chicken), 14 million wings and 3 million breast fillets each year.

The 15-year-old company has 280 restaurants, about 50 of which are company stores, and about 8,500 employees, with 120 people working at Zaxby's corporate campus in Oconee County.

The 15th annual Farm-City Tour concluded with a barbecue luncheon and with recognition of middle school students who participated in the school system's annual essay contest about the importance of agriculture in Oconee County.